Although he voted to acquit the former president, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in remarks Saturday distanced himself from Trump and made clear he believed that Trump was solely to blame for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

"Jan. 6 was a disgrace," McConnell began. "Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he’d lost an election."

McConnell reminded those listening of his words on the floor last month in which he said the mob was "fed lies" and "provoked" by Trump.

"There's no question -- none -- that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president," he said.

McConnell said it wasn't Trump remarks solely on Jan. 6 -- as House managers have argued -- but "also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe, the increasingly wild myths -- myths -- about a reverse landslide election that was somehow being stolen, some secret coup by our now president."

McConnell also shot down the defense equating Trump's rhetoric to past comments of Democrats telling supporters to "fight."

"That's different from what we saw. This was an intensifying crescendo of conspiracy theories orchestrated by an outgoing president who seemed determined to either overturn the voters' decision or else torch our institutions on the way out," he said, adding Trump's "unconscionable behavior did not end when the violence actually began."

He said there should be no question that Trump was aware of the violence underway, but he didn't move to stop it.

"Whatever our ex-president claims he thought might happen that day, whatever reaction he says he meant to produce, by that afternoon, we know he was watching the same live television as the rest of us. A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags and screaming their loyalty to him," he said.

"It was obvious that only President Trump could end this," McConnell said. "The president did not act swiftly. He did not do his job."

However, though McConnell said he ultimately didn't believe an impeachment trial in the Senate was the correct form of resolve since Trump was no longer in office, explaining his vote to acquit, he did leave the door open for Trump being criminally prosecuted.

"President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he’s in office," he said. "He didn’t get away with anything yet."

Notably, McConnell said he would have considered House managers' charge while he was still majority leader and Trump was still president, and then impeachment would have been an "acceptable" course, he said, but McConnell punted the trial to incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during the transfer of power in the chamber last month.

Former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, an ABC News contributor, called Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski "courageous" for voting guilty, saying she was "the person who really risked it all today on behalf of our democracy."

"I hope that dozens of them [Republican senators] will look back and say, 'Why didn't I have the courage of that Alaska senator?'" Heitkamp told ABC News.

ABC News contributor Sara Fagen said, "Had these been secret ballots" in the House and Senate, "there would've been many more votes to impeach and convict."

After Trump was acquitted by the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., took to the Senate floor to blast Trump for his actions and echo House managers' argument that Trump violated his oath of office.

"This was the first presidential impeachment trial in history in which all senators were not only judges and jurors, but witnesses to the Constitutional crime that was committed," Schumer said. "The former president inspired, directed and propelled a mob to violently prevent the peaceful transfer of power, subvert the will of the people and illegally keep that president in power."

Schumer went on to argue that without Trump, the insurrection would have never happened.

"If President Trump hadn't told his supporters to march to the Capitol, if he hadn't implored them to come to Washington on January 6th in the first place, if he hadn't repeatedly lied to them that the election was stolen, their country was being taken from them, the attack would not have happened -- could not have happened," Schumer added.

He highlighted the fact that a majority of senators, including seven republicans, did vote to convict the former president, and said he thinks Trump will be discredited in the eyes of America after his second impeachment trial, even though he was acquitted.

"He deserves to be permanently discredited, and I believe he has been discredited in the eyes of the American people and in the judgment of history," he said.

The former president has released a statement responding to the Senate voting to acquit him Saturday afternoon.

"This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country. No president has ever gone through anything like it, and it continues because our opponents cannot forget the almost 75 million people, the highest number ever for a sitting president, who voted for us just a few short months ago," the statement read.

"Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun. In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people. There has never been anything like it!" it finished.

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega pointed out that Trump's statement doesn’t condemn the insurrection.

"The Trump version of reality," she said, "won out today."

After the Senate decided it will not call any witnesses, lead House manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was the first to speak during closing arguments. He reiterated the prosecution's case, calling for the conviction of Trump.

"It was suggested by defense counsel that Donald Trump's conduct during the attack, as described in Congresswoman Beutler's statement, is somehow not part of the Constitutional offense for which former President Trump has been charged," Raskin began. "I want to reject that falsehood and that fallacy immediately. After he knew that violence was underway at the Capitol, President Trump took actions that further incited the insurgents to be more inflamed and to take even more extreme, selective, and focused action against Vice President Mike Pence."

Raskin went on to use his time to describe Trump's months-long campaign to discredit the 2020 election results by spreading misinformation, which he argued laid the groundwork for deadly events of Jan. 6. He went on to claim that the former president assembled the mob, incited it and then sent it off to the Capitol during his speech. At every point, Trump sided with the insurrectionists rather than the Congress, Raskin said.

Once when the violence began, Raskin declared that Trump ignored the violence and further incited it by aiming the attacks on his own vice president.

"There has never been a greater betrayal by the president of the United States of his office, and of his oath to the Constitution."

Raskin then took a moment to suggest the GOP used "cancel culture" against one of its leaders, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who voted to impeach Trump in the House.

"Liz Cheney is a hero for standing up for the truth, and resisting this retaliatory cancel culture that she was subjected to."

Raskin emphasized his gratitude toward the Capitol Police, and finished his argument by saying convicting Trump is a vote for the "security of our democracy."

"They attacked this building, they disrupted the peaceful transfer of power, they injured and killed people, convinced that they were acting on his instructions, and with his approval, and protection," Raskin finished. "And while that happened, he further incited them, while failing to defend us. If that's not ground for conviction, if that's not a high crime and misdemeanor against the republic in the United States of America then nothing is. President Trump must be convicted for the safety and security of our democracy and our people."